Wednesday, October 19, 2011

USA: Undercover Cops and Politicians Escape BitTorrent Lawsuits

Court papers filed in one of the mass-lawsuits against BitTorrent users reveal some interesting facts. In an attempt to justify suing dozens of people at once, the attorney claims that this is a practical issue. Apparently the copyright holder has decided to throw out a lot of cases, because the defendants have died, are political or public figures, employed by the army, or part of a covert police operation.

In federal courts all across the U.S. hundreds of thousands of alleged BitTorrent users have been targeted by copyright holders.

In recent months many of these defendants walked free because various judges ruled – for a wide range of reasons – that copyright holders should file individual lawsuits instead of joining many in one suit to save costs.

This week the attorney for adult company K-Beech, bankruptcy expert James C. White, submitted a rather incoherent declaration to the court where he argues the opposite.

In response to motions from defendants, White explains that these mass-lawsuits are warranted because not all the IP-addresses they filed suit against are actually targets worth pursuing. To keep the costs low, joining these IP-addresses in one suit is therefore a practical (and financial) consideration.

Although the above holds no ground as far as the law is concerned, the lawyer does review a few interesting details about the IP-addresses they target. As it turns out, even undercover cops have been caught red-handed, downloading and sharing porn.